Ridgewood NJ, the Affordable NJ Communities for Homeowners & Renters (ANCHOR) program was developed to offset both the high costs of living and property tax burden, replacing the Homestead Benefit program and expanding the number of eligible taxpayers. Nearly 1.7 million New Jersey citizens applied for the ANCHOR property tax relief program by the February 28 filing deadline. The NJCCIC detected a series of phishing emails attempting to steal New Jersey residents’ ANCHOR program ID and PIN. These emails originated from similar IP addresses and the same subject line “ANCHOR Program Request for ID/PIN,” with some of the messages containing attachments. Further analysis also identified telephone-oriented attack delivery (TOAD) phishing attempts containing similar subject content as well as attempts to redirect payments. Recent open-source reporting indicates that threat actors may have filed fraudulent claims purporting to be NJ taxpayers.
The NJCCIC advises ANCHOR applicants to contact the NJ Treasury Division of Taxation directly before providing any sensitive personal information in response to received communications claiming to be related to the ANCHOR program. Users and organizations are recommended to educate themselves and others on these continuing threats and tactics to reduce victimization. Users are advised to avoid clicking links and opening attachments from unknown senders and exercise caution with emails from known senders. If you are unsure of an email’s legitimacy, contact the sender via a separate means of communication, such as by phone, before taking any action. Navigate to websites directly by manually typing the URL into a browser, instead of clicking on links delivered in emails, to ensure you are visiting the legitimate website. Taxpayers who identify suspicious activity are urged to contact the NJ Treasury Division of Taxation identity theft reporting portal, and the NJCCIC via the Cyber Incident Reporting Form.
